PA unemployment rate lowest since ‘08

Gov. Tom Corbett is pleased with the latest jobs re­port for Pennsylvania.

Ac­cord­ing to the Pennsylvania De­part­ment of Labor and In­dustry, the state’s un­em­ploy­ment rate held steady in the month of June at 5.6 per­cent — the low­est level since Septem­ber 2008.

The state ad­ded 5,600 private sec­tor jobs, bring­ing the total amount of private sec­tor jobs ad­ded dur­ing Corbett’s term to 184,000.

“The people of our state didn’t send me to Har­ris­burg to make friends, they sent me to build a stronger Pennsylvania, and we con­tin­ue to see that vis­ion re­flec­ted in an­oth­er pos­it­ive jobs re­port,” the gov­ernor said. “We have now cre­ated 184,000 new private sec­tor jobs and have more people work­ing in our private sec­tor than at any oth­er point in the his­tory of the com­mon­wealth. That’s our vis­ion – and that is the stronger Pennsylvania we will con­tin­ue build­ing over the next four and a half years.”

••

The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO last week en­dorsed can­did­ates for the U.S, House of Rep­res­ent­at­ives and the state Sen­ate and House.

Not sur­pris­ingly, the uni­on heav­ily favored Demo­crats.

In fact, the uni­on en­dorsed 12 Demo­crats and no Re­pub­lic­ans for Con­gress. Among those earn­ing a nod were Rep. Bob Brady and state Rep. Brendan Boyle, the Demo­crat­ic nom­in­ee in the 13th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict.

Boyle is also run­ning for re-elec­tion to his state House seat, and the AFL-CIO en­dorsed him in that race, in which he is un­op­posed.

In the nine state House races that in­clude at least a por­tion of the North­east, there is only one con­tested elec­tion. That’s in the 173rd Le­gis­lat­ive Dis­trict, where Rep. Mike McGee­han de­cided not to seek an­oth­er term. The can­did­ates are Re­pub­lic­an Mike Tom­lin­son and Demo­crat Mike Driscoll. The AFL-CIO is with Driscoll.

The AFL-CIO en­dorsed the fol­low­ing un­op­posed can­did­ates: Re­pub­lic­an Reps. Tom Murt and John Taylor, Demo­crat­ic Reps. Kev­in Boyle, John Sabat­ina Jr. and Mark Co­hen, and Jason Dawkins, the Demo­crat­ic can­did­ate in the 179th dis­trict. The uni­on did not en­dorse Demo­crat­ic Rep. Dwight Evans, who is un­op­posed.

In the 2nd Sen­at­ori­al Dis­trict, the uni­on went with Demo­crat­ic Sen. Tina Tartagli­one over Re­pub­lic­an John Jen­kins.

Last month, the AFL-CIO an­nounced its back­ing of the Demo­crat­ic tick­et of Tom Wolf for gov­ernor and Mike Stack for lieu­ten­ant gov­ernor.

••

The 58th Ward Re­pub­lic­an Ex­ec­ut­ive Com­mit­tee will hold a crab and shrimp night on Wed­nes­day, Ju­ly 30, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Pol­ish Amer­ic­an Cit­izens Har­mo­nia Club, at 2404 Or­tho­dox St.